"There was a big rush to finish work on human genome sequencing,"he notes. "Now, that has been completed but that information is being continuallyrefined and as new data have come out, there has been an increasing influenceon things like target identification and validation. The work of discovery isbecoming more intensely information driven with analysis of sequence variation,pathway analysis and data mining. With custom gene synthesis added to our mix, wecan be more targeted in this kind of work. You can cut out a lot of thediscovery work you had to do before and go right to the computer to get thespecific gene sequence you want."
Not only is synthetic biology an emerging market untoitself, Wood says, but it is increasingly coming into convergence with systemsbiology and thus becoming a more practical tool for drug discovery. The foundationfor this convergence to be successful, though, lies in efficient and reliablegene synthesis, and thus Blue Heron's expertise was a strong draw for thestrategic relationship.
The deal, of course, is important to Blue Heron as well,notes John Fess, the company's CEO. "Partnering with a life sciences leadersuch as Invitrogen is an important milestone in Blue Heron Bio's continuedgrowth and signals an important milestone for the overall gene synthesis marketas well," he says, adding that Invitrogen's "unmatched" distribution andmarketing channels will be critical to making Blue Heron's gene synthesisservices more widely available. As part of the agreement, the companies also willco-develop new products and services for the research and biopharmaceuticalmarkets.
